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Loading... is the premier daily
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commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Today we take another look at Gamania's
style="font-style: italic;">Hero:108 Online. We
saw the title first at GDC and we were so intrigued we went back for a
second look. Today, in
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/loading/2010/mar/30">Loading...
Another Look at Hero: 108 Online.

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Earlier this month at GDC Ethec took a look at
style="font-style: italic;">Hero: 108 Online in
form of a
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gdc2010/hero108">hands-on
preview. He was impressed with it. In fact he made me feel
rather guilty for not being able to check it out myself. Initially I
was going to be the one heading to the Gamania room and to take a first
look at the game, but with the insanity in scheduling that is GDC it
ended up being Ethec.

So when I was approached later in the month to check it out for myself
I was quite happy. No more would I be the man on the outs, not having
experienced this new title for myself.

So did it measure up to Ethec's preview? Well, yes. Now keep in mind
that I have no contact with children in my life. I don't know how they
think, nor do I understand their jokes. I'm the kind of guy that if I
get asked to spend some time with a child, I'd probably just watch
Tarantino movies and avoid eye contact. I say this only to illustrate
that despite the fact that I'm not familiar with the toddler pop
culture I did enjoy Hero:
108 Online.

So the question then is "why?" What made the game cool for me? Well,
for starters it was pretty freakin' intuitive. The UI is very well
designed and navigating your way around it is something a kid could do,
which is a good thing considering the target audience for the title.
But more than that, there's always something to do in
style="font-style: italic;">Hero: 108 Online.
With the quest tree displaying all available quests in the game coupled
with a clever system that will point you in the direction of your next
goal you're going to have a hard time getting bored in the game or
saying "there's nothing to do."

It's not like Irvine-based Gamania doesn't know what they're doing
either. According to Kevin Crawford, Product Director, the company has
been around for ten years and have produced other titiles such as
href="http://brightshadow.gamepotusa.com/">
style="font-style: italic;">Bright Shadow.The
company has a heavy focus on the localization of their titles and
retains autonomy.

Perhaps the coolest thing that should be mentioned about
style="font-style: italic;">Hero 108: Online is
that it's being tied in very much to the cartoon series on Cartoon
Network. The show kicked off this month and is gaining a lot of
popularity. While the show does air in the US as well, the UK audience
has enjoyed it so much that it can be seen during prime time cartoon
hours (4pm weekdays and 7am Saturdays). This positions Gamania nicely
into the launch of the game as both the game and the show have been
developed simultaneously, and will continue to be. It's extremely rare
that this sort of setup can happen so it's definitely an
asset for the game.

So, did I enjoy the game as much as Ethec? Well, I did get more time to
play it than he did as Gamania was kind enough to keep an account open
for me to play at my leisure. I played as Mighty Ray as I felt a strong
connection with the character that pokes himself in the eye to shoot
lasers. And although I'm probably not the exact target audience Gamania
has in mind, I can say that I did have fun. The humor is well placed
and it's always fun to strip off the "serious gamer" persona and spend
some time just being silly. That being said, there is enough in the
game to offer challenge to more advanced players, particularly if you
decide to do some of the more fancy combos. They're not necessary, but
they do make for a lot of fun as you pull trains and work extra hard at
controlling the numbers.

Even so, in the end, this will be a children's title. I'm sure there
will be tweens and adults who will enjoy it, particularly if they play
with their families. There's tons of family fun to be had and combining
a hot new tv show with a video game that can be played together makes
for a nice common ground. And isn't that kind of the point in today's
market?

Share your thoughts and comments in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50455">Loading...
forum!

You
never can trust a countdown clock, can you? Better than half the time
they count down to something less cool than you might have hoped. And
sometimes, in movies, they stop on 1 and you never get to see what
would have happened if they'd reached their destination at 0.

So,
was BioWare's countdown clock a disappointment, or did it provide a big
bang? Check out Martuk's news thread for more about what happened when
the timer hit 0, and see how the community responded.
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50432">Then
join the fun!

==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread

"Lots of Canadians are mad about this. "

- Rocqu

==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!

The
dread Blood Tide pirates, bane of House Deneith, are holed up in a
fortress defended by powerful cannons. But siege assets are needed
elsewhere and it's time to storm in. Will your party choose a frontal
assault as the captain recommends, sneak in at the behest of the
spymaster, or try to dodge the powerful wards and make use of the
archmage's teleport?

One
of the major goals we have had here at Ten Ton Hammer with this column
was to dispel some of the misconceptions that exist about free-to-play
and microtransaction gaming. But it seems in the midst of all of this
we have spawned some unintentional myths of our own. A private
message
from a loyal reader tipped us off to the fact that they we have hyping
up so many new games that the impression has become that the older
games are simply not worth playing. Join Medawky this week as he takes
a look at some of the pioneers of quality free-to-play gaming in
Microcosms - The Future is Now.

The
WoW Weekly Report is here again with all of last week's news
plus
coverage of our major features. This week we cover heroic or hard modes
and why they're an unnecessary evil. Should they even be in the game?
Find out this week in our WoW Weekly Report - The Overpull.

EVE
Online is if nothing else a game full of intrigue and drama. This week,
The Mittani returns with a tale of growing conflict, betrayal,
rebellion, and a side order of irony in New Eden. Peace has gone on for
far too long and things are starting to stir that may lead to bigger
conflicts, including more Goonfleet shenanigans. Join The Mittani and
find out what's happening in this week's Sins of a Solar Spymaster -
Galaxy in Flames.

The
achievements for collecting mounts just might be some of the hardest
achievements in World of Warcraft. Its true Blizzard has added more
mounts to the game, and as such the achievement line is easier to
complete, but its still a daunting challenge that takes time, money,
and just a little bit of luck. To better your chances of completely
these achievements Mem has compiled this basic guide to help steer you
in the right direction.

Spring
is in the air and with it comes the undeniable urge to clean, to let go
of the old and usher in the new. Many will be puttering around the
house, doing all those things the winter months prevented. Many will
participate and revel in this cleaning ritual, so why not
take the
next step and bring your spring cleaning to your World of Warcraft
character? Join Mem this week as he takes up the challenge of cleaning
his character's inventory.